TRENTON, NJ—A Hicksville, New York, man today admitted his role in one of the largest credit card fraud schemes ever charged by the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Ijaz Butt, 56, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson in Trenton federal court to Count One of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Butt was originally charged in February 2013 as part of a conspiracy to fabricate more than 7,000 false identities to obtain tens of thousands of credit cards. Since then, 19 people, including Butt, have pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.

Members of the conspiracy doctored credit reports to pump up the spending and borrowing power associated with the cards. They then borrowed or spent as much as they could, based on the phony credit history, but did not repay the debts—causing more than $200 million in confirmed losses to businesses and financial institutions.

The scheme involved a three-step process in which the defendants would make up a false identity by creating fraudulent identification documents and a fraudulent credit profile with the major credit bureaus; pump up the credit of the false identity by providing false information about that identity’s creditworthiness to those credit bureaus; and finally, run up large loans.

The scope of the criminal fraud enterprise required Butt and other conspirators to construct an elaborate network of false identities. Across the country, the conspirators maintained more than 1,800 “drop addresses,” including houses, apartments and post office boxes, which they used as the mailing addresses of the false identities.

Butt admitted that he helped obtain credit cards in the name of third parties—many of which were fictional—then directed the credit cards to be mailed to addresses controlled by members of the conspiracy. He also admitted they knew the cards would be used fraudulently at businesses.

The conspiracy charge to which Butt pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing is scheduled for March 21, 2016.

The conspirators wired millions of dollars to Pakistan, India, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Romania, China and Japan. Due to the massive scope of the conspiracy, which involved over 25,000 fraudulent credit cards, loss calculations are ongoing. Final figures may grow beyond the present confirmed losses of more than $200 million.